South Africa

[brandon]

South Africa will play Pakistan in two Tests in the United Arab Emirates from October 14, ending their eight-month absence from the Test arena. Their last Test series was at home in February against Pakistan, as their tour to Sri Lanka in July has been adjusted to drop the Tests. The tour will also include five one-day internationals and two T20s.

Will they lose ranking points for their inactivity? Secondly, is there a minimum amount of Tests a nation must play over the course of a year or so? Bit shit really, that they've had so long out. Couple that to the shite Series over here last summer which was atleast Two Test Matches light. Then the lack of an English tour to SA in the near future, with the last one being ages ago.

It's no wonder they're top of the Test charts if they never play any fucker

 

[TopCat]

Will they lose ranking points for their inactivity? Secondly, is there a minimum amount of Tests a nation must play over the course of a year or so? Bit shit really, that they've had so long out. Couple that to the shite Series over here last summer which was atleast Two Test Matches light. Then the lack of an English tour to SA in the near future, with the last one being ages ago.

It's no wonder they're top of the Test charts if they never play any fucker

IIRC the ranking points are based on performance v each test playing nation home and away. The points are compiled depending on most recent series v previous series (i.e. if we lost 0-3 away to India, then won 3-0 away we score loads of points, but if the reverse was true, we'd lose a load of points. If we win the Ashes 2-1 we won't gain any more points). I don't think activity or lack thereof comes in to it

 

[Andy.SAFC]

IIRC the ranking points are based on performance v each test playing nation home and away. The points are compiled depending on most recent series v previous series (i.e. if we lost 0-3 away to India, then won 3-0 away we score loads of points, but if the reverse was true, we'd lose a load of points. If we win the Ashes 2-1 we won't gain any more points). I don't think activity or lack thereof comes in to it

So they could just not play any tests and stay top. Or just play NZ, WI, Bangladesh, and not give us/India the chance to play them and catch them?

 

[Twisted]

Will they lose ranking points for their inactivity? Secondly, is there a minimum amount of Tests a nation must play over the course of a year or so? Bit shit really, that they've had so long out. Couple that to the shite Series over here last summer which was atleast Two Test Matches light. Then the lack of an English tour to SA in the near future, with the last one being ages ago.

It's no wonder they're top of the Test charts if they never play any fucker

aye criminal that was

 

[TopCat]

So they could just not play any tests and stay top. Or just play NZ, WI, Bangladesh, and not give us/India the chance to play them and catch them?

You have to play everyone eventually in a cycle. They could play 10 series in a row against Bangladesh, winning every series 5-0 and it wouldn't affect their ranking points as each series is scored agains the last series you played against that opponent.

The ICC Test Championship is an international competition run by the International Cricket Council in the sport of cricket for the 10 teams that play Test cricket. The competition is notional in the sense that it is simply a ranking scheme overlaid on all international matches that are otherwise played as part of regular Test cricket scheduling with no consideration of home or away status.
In essence, after every Test series, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. The total of each team's points total is divided by the total number of matches to give a 'rating', and the Test-playing teams are ranked by order of rating (this can be shown in a table).
The points for winning a Test match or series are greater than the team's rating, increasing the rating, and the points for losing the match or series are always less than the rating, reducing the rating. A drawn match between higher and lower rated teams will benefit the lower-rated team at the expense of the higher-rated team. An 'average' team that wins as often as it loses while playing a mix of stronger and weaker teams should have a rating of 100.